What is sand anyways?

This evening finds me probably 70% ( or at least I hope so) recovered from a four day fever ridden flu. All that's been on my mind while bed ridden has been survival. It is very hard to be positive when feeling like death warmed up. My plans for the week lie in tatters and I am now even further behind with my work. Time! Time Time! The sands of time even. How do I get it back or catch up I'm asking myself? A very frustrating concept is time. From a spiritual slant it does not take much research to find that the apparent key to it all is learning to 'live in the now' and honour the present. FAR EASIER SAID THAN DONE  I find.
      Part of the problem I'm having is the focus that we seem to have on immortality. Just how long are we supposed to live? It seems that we all need to be aiming for 90 or more. The old adage used to be 3 score and 10. Is that so bad? One would think so when one reflects on media bombardment. Take for example retirement. All over the world, due to the global recession, retirement ages are going up and up. When discussed a few years ago, that is, raising the retirement age in the U.K. from 65 to possibly 67 or 70, it was pointed out by many Glaswegians ( residents of Glasgow) that the average life expectancy of a man there is 64. Mmmmmm....do the maths.
     So, this living in the moment thing.Is it possible when we are told how long we should live and when is the right time to die? One of the big questions that often comes up is would we live our lives differently if we knew when we were going to die? Personally I think we would. It puts me in mind of DEATH in the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Everyone has an hourglass with the sands of time flowing from one half to the other. So Death knows when everyone is going to pop their clogs.
        Take children. They live in the moment until they are conditioned out of it. It's an interesting thought. One minute we are building castles out of sand without a care in the world and the next we are wondering how many grains are left in our timer.